


close your eyes & make believe

by ishie



Category: Downton Abbey
Genre: F/M, Tropes, tumblrfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-27
Updated: 2012-09-27
Packaged: 2017-11-15 03:30:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/522659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ishie/pseuds/ishie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><a href="http://andthenisay.tumblr.com/">andthenisay</a> asked for: richard carlisle/mary crawley. the opposite of 11: modern au.</p>
            </blockquote>





	close your eyes & make believe

The first time Mary Crawley winds up in the tabloids, it’s during her come-out — the round of private parties that takes the place of the antiquated rituals of court presentations and matchmaking. Oh, all that still happens, but now the matchmaking belongs more to the who-wants-to-sleep-with-whom variety than the marriage-minded.

The second time, it’s as she’s led out of Pamuk’s luxury flat with some detective inspector’s coat draped over her head and the glint of handcuffs visible at her wrists. There’s blood on the hem of her skirt and a chain of bruises ringing her upper arm. Neither of those things is related to the other — the blood is Pamuk’s from where he hit his head on the corner of the table; something that DI Napier will worry between his teeth for ages until the forensic evidence clears her. The bruises are the reward she earned for warning Edith to stay out of her business, once and for all. The sharp-edged words she’d flung in her sister’s face might have been a step too far, but all that was done now and there was nothing that would ever take them back.

The third time, it isn’t her face that will be dashed across the newsprint, but it will be the name she’s so proud to carry. Whatever she must do to avert disaster, she tells herself, she is ready and willing to do.

Richard Carlisle looks equal parts amused and intrigued when Mary lays out her offer, but before she can press him to make a decision, he’s already standing.

“Thank you for stopping by, Miss Crawley,” he says, coming around the desk to offer his hand again. “But my duty is to my readers and my investors. To bury a story of such…” His hand tightens on hers, just for a moment, and his voice drops to a gravelly whisper. “Prurient interest is entirely out of the question.”

Mary feels a thrill of something dark and hot slide through her. “And if I told you I’d be willing to offer something more personal in exchange for your help in this matter?” she asks, drawing the pad of her thumb over the inside of his wrist.

“Well,” Carlisle drawls, triumph lighting his eyes and erasing decades from his face. “Then I think we might come to some agreement after all.”


End file.
